Thursday, September 11, 2008

cancer sucks, but God is good

I've been sitting on this post for awhile and, after reading Laurie's post on prayer, I decided to "publish post" today. I haven't written too much about my mom out of respect for her privacy but, as obvious in the last photos I posted of her, she has cancer.

I pray for healing for my mom. It doesn't matter that the doctor gave her an unfavorable prognosis, my prayer continues for restoration of her health. Sound foolish? Like I'm not facing reality? Perhaps if you only look at the visible, physical evidence....but God transcends what we can touch and see. Just consider Hezekiah, or Jairus's daughter (8:41), or Lazarus, or sweet little Gwyneth.

The other day when I was praying for her, I stopped and thought, "This is crazy! I'm praying for her to stay in this world but praying for Jesus to come for me!" That made me laugh...even now as I typed it! Seriously though, my prayers for my mom have changed since her diagnosis. While I once only prayed the selfish cries of a daughter, I now pray the pleas of a sister in Christ.

For while I'm confident that she would be exceedingly better off in Heaven since to be absent from the body is to be present with Christ, in God's compassion for those who do not know Him He tells us to "pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest." My mom is a believer, and so my desire is to see her health restored that she may live to serve her Lord and Savior as a laborer in His harvest. May her life be extended that she may bear much fruit for His kingdom.

Do I know that it is God's will to heal my mom? Nope. But I also don't know that it isn't. However, I do know this. Unless He tells me it isn't His plan, every time I pray to God to heal my mom I am glorifying Him because I go before Him in confidence that He alone is the Great Physician. I acknowledge Him alone as Jehovah-Rapha, the Lord who Heals.

A question asked on the Truth Project was something to the effect of, "Do you really believe what you believe is really real?" The example was that if we REALLY believed that praying was to go before the throne of our Holy God and have Him welcome you with arms outstretched to sit and talk with Him, praying would not be difficult. In fact, we would want to pray all day! We call ourselves "believers," but do we really believe?

If you would like to pray for my mom's healing, I'm sure she would appreciate it. Her name is Sara. I also write this post in hopes of encouraging readers who may currently be discouraged. Every day that you have on this planet is a day with purpose. Whether you are bedridden, unemployed, a POW, or a SAHM (kinda the same as a POW, huh?) your life has great value in the eyes of your Creator. Every breath you take is an opportunity to glorify God in your thoughts and actions, and the ultimate way to glorify God is to trust in Jesus Christ as the One who died so that you might live.

edited2add: The following comment is from my mom...I'm just posting it for her!
I would go for years and never mention the greatness of God and now it seems that in this hardest part of my life has been the easiest to praise Him for all He has done. The opportunity to just slightly mention to others how wonderful He has been to me through all this just keeps popping up. And I say these things to people I would never have mentioned religion to before. Now I hope I can figure out how to send this comment!

And since I know it will bum out my mom if there are no photos, here goes:

12 comments:

Tracy said...

Your mom is always in our prayers. Even though it has been years since I last saw her, I still remember all the great times we have had together like it was yesterday!

Tami said...

Oh Tish, Your dear mother Sara will be added to our daily prayers. This was a beautiful post, and as always, I am so inspired by your deep faith and service to others on so many levels.

I will also pray for your continued strength and trust in the Lord. Please know my heart aches for all of you....and I'm with you....miracles DO happen!

Sending hugs(((()))))).

OX,Tami

Laurzie said...

Yes, I'm honored to be on the SARAH PRAYER TEAM! Thanks for sharing this with us so we can faithfully lift her up for healing and restoration. God IS good, and He IS in the miracle business!

Bless you, friend,
XO

Lynn said...

Tish, I will be praying for your sweet mother and for you my sweet friend. Thank you for such a thought provoking post, I really need them lately.

love you,
Lynn

Andrea said...

Praying for your Mom and your family.

I love you,

Andrea

RamblingMother said...

Def praying for her and you.

Michelle said...

For Tish and Sara,
As I read your posts, I selfishly cried and then had a great peace come over me. You are both so right, what an awesome test and confirmation of God's love to be able to face the future with such confidence and strength. I love you both and pray for you often. You are both an inspiration to me.
Love,
Michelle

Laurzie said...

Tish, I'm so blessed by your note to me... WOW, God is so good! I'm so glad about your time with Him this morning. How wonderful! He's doing something new in and for you (and your sweet mama) and it's beautiful and so uplifting to witness. I'm thankful that you're my sister in Christ and that we can exhort and encourage one another to serve the Lord with greater passion and stronger faith. Awesome! XO

Laurzie said...

When you get a chance would you please email me so I can respond to your other note, too. laurzie@ahinsulation.com
THANK YOU for joining us in praying for Lincoln! I'm so excited to see what the Lord is going to do!

Maia said...

I have survived cancer once, and my mother has survived it twice. All I can say is that it has brought us both strength and happiness in unexpected ways. There is no shame in the confusion that comes with the prospect of loss, but know also that there are also great gifts hidden in even something as dreadful to suffer as cancer. Amazing but true.

Shannon said...

Thought you could find more encouragment on www.desiringgod.org and an article called Don't Waste Your Cancer by John Piper who was diagnosed with cancer a few years ago (and I think it was found early enough to be removed - but this was written before they knew that). If you're not familiar with him, he always has great truth and all of his books can be downloaded online for free!

Thanks for sharing your journey as you wrestle with this difficult season.

Shannon

kari said...

praying......

xoxo

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